Month: February 2016

“Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22

The above verse conveys the response Samuel posed to Saul (King of Israel) after Saul disregarded God’s specific instruction concerning how to deal with an enemy of Israel’s.

When Saul’s misstep was pointed out to him by Samuel, Saul’s’ response was to justify his disobedience by trying rationalize it with a sacrifice to the Lord.

At first glance, this might not appear to be a big deal at all. Saul was ready to present a burnt offering sacrifice to God as proof that he was following God.

But God did not ask Saul for an offering, God asked Saul for his obedience.

Although I have read this account in Samuel as few times before, I never fully grasped what Samuel was trying to teach Saul here until now.

I have been reminded through this timeless exchange that God has His specific way to do things for very good reasons.

Isaiah 55:8 tells us that God’s thoughts and ways are His alone. As much as we would like to understand why circumstances occur in life, we are just not capable of comprehending the same big picture God sees.

God knows how much fear of the “unknown” in our lives can overwhelm, and even paralyze, us.

God choose to deal with our fear by assuring us that obedience to Him will ultimately trump anything that attempts to discourage or destroy us.

Total obedience to God and His Word is hard, especially in light of the confusing, strange and even tragic circumstances that life presents daily.

When I doubt full obedience to God is the answer to a situation I find myself in, it is vital I remember that I am only seeing a small, worldly view of the situation.

I must remember I am experiencing life in the limited dimension of earthly time, thus my reactions and decisions will be based on a small portion of the entire process God sees.

I also remind myself that God’s glorious plan of redemption for the human race includes my specific and unique life!

Saul viewed his circumstances within his limited lens, and because of that he missed out on the glorious victory God had planned for him and all of Israel.

Saul believed he could circumvent obedience to God by offering a sacrifice to God that He never wanted.

Yet the reality is that anything we give to God, whether it is our works of service or our sacrifices on any level, will only become acceptable as they become an outflow of our obedience to God.

Our obedience is the foundation of the relationship we need to have with our Creator in order for Him to bring His desired plan for our life to fulfillment.

Our acknowledgement that God as our one and only true source of life is demonstrated by the obedience He desires from us.

Allow God to bring about every good thing He desires for your life, both earthly and eternal, through your submitted obedience to Him.

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Psalm 34:8 (NKJV)

During the course of my spiritual journey, God has shown me that how I define words is not necessarily the same way He views them.

In Isaiah 55:8 God declares to us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.”

Now that verse certainly is true, but sometimes I think we take practical, everyday words and assume that God’s understanding of them are just the same as ours.

Words like provision, love, security, eternity, good and blessings.

Over the years, I can see how much of my frustration with God was due to the fact that I simply never acknowledged that God does not use a worldly dictionary.

I tended to let my earthly world around me define the meaning and value of words.

I was taking natural words and trying (really hard!) to fit them into a supernatural relationship with my Creator.

Think about trying to convey your heart to someone who understands the meaning of some words in a whole different way.

That leads to a disconnect resulting in frustration and discouragement!

In order to move forward in my relationship with God, He had to take me back to a very foundational place.

He had me focus on His true character…who He says He is, and not who the world tries to convince me He is.

Once I was able to perceive His true character, He taught me to view events and situations from His perspective as well as mine.

In doing that, I began to see how some of my natural words changed in their meaning when I defined them within God’s economy.

As I allowed His meanings of words to take precedent, much of my world fell into place.

It was as if I received different shaped puzzle pieces that easily fit together giving me a clearer picture of my situations.

My confusion and disappointment with circumstances fell away as the truth of God’s words renewed my mind.

The word blessed in Psalm 34:8 is a great example.

This verse does not tell us that blessed is attached to a tangible element of our world.

Now a blessing CAN BE manifested in something tangible, but here it is simply tied to the word trust.

Blessed is the man who trusts Him!

Not the man who is rich, or has perfect health, or has great wisdom, or has a great job, or has healthy children, or so many other tangible things we tie to blessing.

Blessed is the man who trusts Him!

This blessing comes from simply trusting the Lord.

This type of blessing takes us far beyond the circumstances of our earthy existence and right into the promise of our future heavenly home.

We might think we have nothing concrete to show the world for this type of blessing, but the blessing is felt as we reflect the image of our Creator with our trust.

Try changing the understanding of other words such as good, provision or love by truly meditating on how God uses them.

Use Scripture, the inspired Word of God, as your new dictionary.

Ask God what He wants you to understand about certain words, and use that as your standard.

Allow the Lord to give you a whole different meaning to your vocabulary that puts the focus on eternity.

Trust God to give you new revelations concerning the use of your language and be blessed by them!